And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (Ephesians 5:18)
The Command (cont.)
Many things happen in a Christian’s life through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian should desire these things that we are enabled to do to live victoriously by the filling of the Holy Spirit. It is a command.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
In these verses, we see clearly that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, meaning that when we received Christ as Saviour, the Holy Ghost came to dwell within us. When we look at someone, we do not see everything God sees. The Bible teaches us that we are spirit, soul, and body:
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
In our spirits, we have intellect, emotion, and will; in our souls, we have a conscience [this is where the Holy Spirit dwells when we are saved], and in our bodies, we have our five senses. We are made of these three parts, and we can and must choose to which part we are going to yield our lives. When we are saved and the Lord lives in our lives, we can choose to live a Spirit-filled life.
God divides the world into two groups of people: those who are saved and those who are lost, those who have accepted His Son as their Saviour and those who have not. God further divides Christians into two groups: those who are carnal and those who are spiritual. Unfortunately, many more Christians are carnal than spiritual. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit; we are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Christians are commanded to be Spirit-filled.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4)
Paul wrote the epistle of 1 Corinthians to address several problems in the church at Corinth, one of which was their carnality, which we can clearly see in the verses above. We see that, because of their carnality, the members of the church have a lot of trouble getting along with each other. Most likely, these people all agreed on the scriptures and doctrine, yet they were divided over personality differences.
We see the same thing in churches today. Most of the members of the church agree on Bible doctrine. Otherwise, why would they be members of the same church? However, the members often become divided over lesser things. Why is that? Carnality.
We cannot be the kind of Christians we ought to be without being filled with the Spirit. Pastors cannot be the preachers and leaders they ought to be without Holy Spirit filling. Parents cannot properly run their homes, husbands and wives cannot treat each other with the love and respect each deserves, children cannot obey their parents without the filling of the Holy Spirit. An employer cannot lead his people properly, employees cannot be the right kind of workers unless they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
God does not confine the work of the filling of the Holy Spirit to one situation. Our Lord commands us to be filled. When we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we live carnal lives. The choice is ours. We must choose to either be carnal or spiritual.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)
Notice that the verse specifically says that they spake the Word of God with boldness. The evidence of Spirit filling is not speaking in some strange language (speaking in tongues); it is speaking boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost… (Acts 6:5a)
The people chose Stephen to be a deacon because he was full of the Holy Ghost.
Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, (Acts 13:9)
Acts 13 records Paul and Barnabas being sent out of the church at Antioch to be missionaries. We see in verse 4 of that chapter that the Holy Spirit leads them first to Seleucia then to Cyprus. On Cyprus, they met the deputy of the country named Sergius Paulus and Elymas the sorcerer. Verse 9 (above), and the verses following, tell us that Paul was able to withstand the sorcerer and lead the deputy to the Lord because he was filled with the Holy Ghost.
We can be saved by trusting Jesus Christ as our Savior, live our entire lives without ever being Spirit-filled, and still die and go to heaven. However, think what it would be like when we see Jesus Christ and He says, “I had so much more for you. Why didn’t you let Me bless you and use you as I wanted to?”
Do you want to be blessed and used by God the way the Lord desires to bless and use you? The Holy Spirit walks with us all through life. He enables us to move closer and closer to Jesus Christ and to be more of what we should be with each passing day. We may be growing older without growing more mature in the Lord. Why should we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It is not for our glory but for God’s.
Next week, we will discuss the conditions of being filled with the Spirit. Until then, please keep these verses with you as a reminder:
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:5-6)
To read more about what Trinity Baptist Church believes in regards to the Holy Spirit, please click here to read our statement of faith.
To read more of what the Bible says about being carnal, please click here.